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NWS Confirms Two Tornadoes In Clermont & Brown Counties

Updated 2/25/18 at 10:35 p.m.

The National Weather Service Sunday night confirmed two tornadoes touched down early Sunday morning in Clermont and Brown Counties.

Meteorologists confirm one tornado southwest of Felicity. It began along Neville-Penn Schoolhouse Road just after midnight. It was rated an EF-1, or weak tornado.

A separate tornado was confirmed around and just to the northeast of Hamersville in Brown County. Meteorologists said additional surveying may be necessary Monday to determine its strength.

Residents of Hamersville, about 45 miles east of Cincinnati, spent part of Sunday cleaning up debris after the storm.

"We had no idea we were going to run into this mess," said Hamersville/Clark Township Fire Chief Denny Schneider.

The storm took the roof off of the old fire department building causing it to damage the roof on the new department building right next to it.

"These roads were blocked and we had to come in the back way," Schneider said.

A few barns were destroyed. Lots of trees and limbs were blown down. One tree fell on a parked car along State Route 125, and another landed on the front of a nearby house. But there doesn't appear to be any homes destroyed because of the storm.

"There was nobody hurt that we know of, we never transported anybody in the squad," Schneider said.

Meanwhile, the storm knocked out power to a large portion of Georgetown, which is about 6 miles east of Hamersville, for about 12 hours. Service was restored just after noon Sunday.

With the power out in Georgetown, many government facilities are relying on emergency generators including the Brown County Adult Detention Center. The generator there malfunctioned Sunday morning and sent thick, black smoke out a chimney. Fire officials quickly brought the incident under control. Some inmates briefly evacuated while the cause of the smoke was investigated.

Credit Jay Hanselman / WVXU
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WVXU
Black smoke pouring from the chimney of the Brown County Adult Detention Center in Georgetown Sunday morning because of a malfunctioning emergency power generator.

The power interruption also caused problems at the Brown County Common Pleas court building in Georgetown. When power was restored, a motor in the ductwork on the second floor of the building overheated and set off the building's fire alarms. Units from five different Brown County departments responded to the scene. The building was ventilated and the units left about an hour after they arrived at the scene.

Jay Hanselman brings more than 10 years experience as a news anchor and reporter to 91.7 WVXU. He came to WVXU from WNKU, where he hosted the local broadcast of All Things Considered. Hanselman has been recognized for his reporting by the Kentucky AP Broadcasters Association, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and the Ohio AP Broadcasters.